Under different circumstances, the second-generation Galaxy Tab 10.1 would've been a disappointment. It still is, in a way - especially if you expected a substantial upgrade of the original. This duty however falls on another member of the Samsung tablet lineup.

The successor of the Samsung Galaxy S II - let's call it the Galaxy S III though that might not be its final name - has been a hot topic of conversation for months now. Now a new rumor suggests that all the imaginative rumors are wrong and the S III will be a relatively minor update.

An anonymous source talking to CNET claims that the S III will be to the S II what the iPhone 4S was to the iPhone 4 - a boost in processing power and a cool-sounding (though not necessarily useful) interaction feature.

The source pointed towards the HTC One X as what to expect from the Galaxy S III's specs - so a quad-core CPU (likely an Exynos rather than Tegra), 1GB of RAM and a 4.7" screen.

Friday, 18 May 2012

Here at GSMArena we've spent a lot of time working on new tools to help you, our readers, pick the right smart device for you. The latest thing to come from our lab is a little different though - it's not for our homepage, it's meant to improve your own phone-centric site.

We're introducing a search widget that is easy to use (for webmasters and users alike) and provides condensed info for a wide variety of phones and tablets. The widget has an intuitive interface and shows product images, so it will hopefully make finding the desired device pretty simple.

While 7% of the Chinese smartphone market may seem like nothing to get excited about (especially considering Android had a staggering 68.4% last time we checked), it is an impressive statistic if you take into account that two months ago, not a single WP-powered device was for sale in China.

Growth of this speed has only been seen in one other market so far: Nokia's backyard of Finland. Reports also indicate that WP is gaining tracktion in Russia too.

It seems that LG are keeping true to their word, as the LG Optimus TrueHD LTE is at long last available in Europe.The device, which has only been available in North America and Korea until now, had previously been announced by LG for a limited European launch in three markets: Portugal, Germany and Sweden.

Portuguese retailer Vodafone has the device listed as the LG Maximo True HD LTE, due to naming conflicts with local mobile operator Optimus Telecomunicações.

Korea Economic Daily is reporting that the Samsung Galaxy S III has received over 9 million pre-orders from 100 carriers around the world. This information comes courtesy of a Samsung official who remains anonymous.

Whichever way you look at it, that's an impressive figure. We knew the Galaxy S III was going to sell big but these numbers are much higher than what we would have bet on. It's predecessor, the Galaxy S II, took 10 months to ship 20 million units and the Galaxy S III took two weeks to reach almost half of that. Also, these are pre-order figures, not shipments, and are almost as good as actual sales figures.

It seems that the UK is a great place to get a Samsung Galaxy S III - Phones4U is the latest retailer to offer a little something extra if you place your orders there. If you pre-order an S III, you'll get a free 32GB microSD card along with a genuine Samsung case - the Flip Case - for your new flagship droid.

Thursday, 17 May 2012

LG announced the Optimus LTE2 and bragged about the 2GB of RAM but said little else about the device. Today, they decided to fill in the blanks. There is no official word on a worldwide release of the LTE2, but it probably will venture out of South Korea - the specs sheet reads like a true Samsung Galaxy S III and HTC One X challenger.

Yesterday, we reported that the AT&T version of the HTC One X and the EVO 4G LTE are being detained by the US customs as per the court order by ITC for violating one of Apple's patents. Now as it turns out, these particular phones aren't using Apple's patent to begin with.

Once again, The Verge is reporting that the AT&T One X and the EVO 4G LTE don't have the data tapping feature found on the international version of the One X. For those who are not aware, this feature lets you tap on numbers, email addresses or links in messages and show a menu of options, a feature that has been patented by Apple.

Constantly in the limelight these days, the HTC Desire C just won't keep out of the headlines. The smartphone is not even released yet, but curious (and lucky) fellow journalists have already put it through its paces with the usual benchmark routines.

Here are some of the results it scored:

The Desire C is no high-end device and it's perhaps as low spec'd as Android Ice Cream Sandwich would allow. Yup, the nifty smartphone runs Google's latest and greatest OS release on the measly 600Mhz CPU and 512MB RAM.

Unsurprisingly, the summer lineup of the Japanese carrier NTT Docomo includes the high-profile Samsung Galaxy S III. What caught our eye, however, is that the Japanese version makes use of a dual-core Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 1.5GHz processor (MSM8960) much like the LTE-equipped HTC One Xfor AT&T US and the One XL.

Another interesting fact is that the Samsung Galaxy S III (SC-06D) is listed as having 2GB of RAM. The only other smartphone we know to come with similarly gargantuan amounts of RAM is the LG Optimus LTE2.

Samsung have announced that eager customers who pre-order the upcoming Galaxy S III flagship from the Samsung Brand Store in Westfield Stratford City, can receive their device a day before its official release date – specifically on May 29th at 6pm.

If you've already pre-ordered your device from another UK retailer, don't fret, as Samsung have also announced that other Samsung retail partners can also make the device available on the 29th, except at 7pm, and at their discretion.

If you're in the Stratford area and are thinking about picking up an S III, why not head over to the official Samsung store and get it a day early?

Wednesday, 16 May 2012

Every now and then the topic of Android fragmentation pops up, but this time we get to learn a developer's thoughts on it. Whether you think having multiple versions of a platform simultaneously available operating system is important or not, in reality it's a double-edged sword.

On the one hand, it has given Google the edge in market share across smartphone OS's by quite a large margin, as it allows you to choose from a wide range of devices that appeal to different needs, styles and budgets.

The rumor mill can no longer gossip about the HTC Desire C after it went official yesterday, but the HTC Ville C has come to fill its place. Ville, if you recall, was the codename for the HTC One S and according to the rumors, the Ville C is a cheaper version of just that phone.

According to the leaked specs, the Ville C will have an "ultra slim" body (though it's not clear if it will be as thin as the One S and if it has a unibody design or not), an 8MP camera with 1080p recording, 16GB of built-in storage and even the same 1650mAh battery.

It will run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, of course, but the HTC Sense version is listed as 4.5. Currently, the One series uses Sense 4.0, so what can this new version bring?

HTC just took a massive hit in its patent war with Apple. The import of the company’s duo of U.S. bound Android flagships – the HTC One X for AT&T and the HTC EVO 4G LTE has been delayed indefinitely by the US Customs because of potential infringement of Apple’s patent #5,946,647.

The abovementioned occurrence is due to an exclusion order, which Apple won against HTC in December last year at the International Trade Commission. The ITC concluded that Android’s messaging app and browser infringed an Apple patent, related to the conversion of phone numbers and email addresses to links, which open menus of options.

Google is planning on working with multiple OEMs, as many as five, for the next Nexus phone, reportsThe Wall Street Journal. The phones will all come with the next version of Android (Jelly Bean), will be sold unlocked directly to the customers and will be out by Thanksgiving in the US, just before the holiday season.

This is a major step away from the usual way Google operates for multiple reasons. First of all, the customers will have multiple choices for the Nexus phone.

Analysts are keeping a close eye on the market share of the various mobile OSes. Kantar WorldPanel just reported in and its findings show that Europe enjoyed recent Android offerings more than they did the iPhone 4S.

Their report focuses on the 12 week period that ended in mid April. During that time, Android enjoyed massive growth, nearly doubling its presence in some Euro countries - Spain (where market share went up to 72%), Germany (62%) and Italy (49%).

Apple's iPhone 4S helped it secure the second place in the US and the UK, but the iOS position in continental Europe weakened. The UK also saw strong demand for the HTC One X - the 12 week period that the report is on covers less than a week of One X availability, but the phone still made it to the Top 10.

Tuesday, 15 May 2012

SIM-free and unlocked HTC One XL is now available in Australia. Currently, Oz residents can only purchase the black version for AU$850 (€660). It will work on every GSM carrier in Australia and on Telstra’s LTE network.

In case you are thinking of importing one you'd be glad to find that the HTC One XL supports the needed European GSM and 3G bands as well. There's even support for some of the upcoming LTE networks in Europe working on the 2600MHz band.

HTC One XL is similar to the One X we already reviewed, but for the chipset. The One XL uses a Snapdragon S4 MSM8960 SoC with a 1.5GHz dual-core Krait CPU and Adreno 225 GPU. The NVIDIA’s quad-core Tegra 3 does no offer native LTE support, which caused the chipset swap.

After a number of leaks, the HTC Desire C (previously known as Golf and Wildfire C) went official today. It bears some resemblance to the HTC Explorer, but it's actually more of a One series smartphone.

HTC Desire C is an ICS phone on a budget

The Desire C runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with Sense 4.0 on top out of the box. It also features Beats Audio technology (no headphones though) and packs a 3.5" LCD of HVGA resolution (the Explorer had a 3.2" screen). The handset is 12mm thick and boasts a durable metal frame.

Looks like people in the US willing to grab the upcoming Galaxy S III won't be treated to its quad-core Exynos variant. Instead, latest evidence points to a dual-core Snapdragon S4 powering the Galaxy S III for Verizon.

This is further confirmed by early NenaMark2 benchmarks, which show a Galaxy S III (SCH-I535) with a 1.5GHz dual-core S4. The reason for this exchange of hardware is the LTE support, which the Exynos 4 Quad chipset doesn't offer.

Samsung unveiled its latest entry-level Android smartphone to launch through Net10 and StraightTalk on the Verizon network.

Dubbed the Galaxy Proclaim, this Droid unfortunately runs Gingerbread on its slightly curved 3.5"h HVGA display with a resolution of 320x480 pixels. Under the hood, things are looking better with a 1GHz procesor and 1GB of built-in storage.

Monday, 14 May 2012

Samsung has introduced a new addition to the DUOS lineup – the budget C3782 Evan.

The phone supports quad-band GSM/EDGE networks and comes with a 2.4-inch QVGA display, a 3 megapixel snapper, FM radio, Bluetooth, a 3.5mm audio jack and a microSD card slot. There is an optical trackpad as well.

The C3782 Evan is a feature phone running on the latest non-touch edition of Samsung’s proprietary user interface. The first markets to get this phone are Russia and Ukraine with more countries to follow them shortly after that. The unlocked contract-free device should cost about €110

Nokia has been dabbling with touchscreens on S40 phones for a while now so it was only a matter of time they released a phone with a full touchscreen. Now we have come across two S40 phones with such full-touchscreen displays.

Sunday, 13 May 2012

The HTC Desire C is not a stranger anymore. We've seen it star in not one, but two blurry photo sessions. However, this is the first time we get to see it in its proper attire - via a leaked press shot. Obviously, Vodafone Portugal jumped the gun on this one and included it in its May catalog even before the thing was announced.

Leaked specs and photos are the bread and butter of this job, so we are more than happy to introduce you to the HTC Desire C.

Just a month after its last network expansion, Verizon is ready to bring its fast 4G LTE services to even more areas in the United States.

The expansion commences on May 17 and will include 27 new areas and markets including the Jersey Shore, Sea Bright, Monmouth Beach, Belmar, Point Pleasant, Toms River, Atlantic City and into Cape May County.